Shadow Labour and Home Affairs Minister Michael Dunkley last night said Government had failed to explain why it was taking so long to announce the contractor of the new Berkeley Institute.

The Opposition MP said despite asking questions in the House of Assembly on Friday, he had been given no straight answers as to why there had been delays on the $70 million job.

Mr. Dunkley said he had numerous concerns about the way Government was handling the process, and said the community had not been kept up to date by Works and Engineering Minister Alex Scott.

Mr. Dunkley said: "I continue to be very concerned about this matter. I was most disturbed by the reaction I got from the Government benches on Friday.

"The Minister did not try to address the issue, but instead just tried to placate it. The real concern to the community is the length of time it is taking to award this contract. This has been going on for 12 weeks now. I smell a rat here, and I intend to catch it.'' Government has come in for criticism over the way it has handled the mammoth school project, which is planned to open in September 2003.

There was at first an outcry over Government's plans to pay a $250,000 incentive to the contractors and sub-contractors in return for hiring locals.

And claims have also been made that Pro-Active Management Systems Ltd was to be awarded the contract because its principals have strong ties with the Progressive Labour Party.

This is despite Pro-Active having little experience on the Island and allegedly insufficient staff, and coming in with a bid $5 million more than the lowest, which was from BermudaTech at $65 million.

Mr. Scott has said that a decision has been taken and an announcement will be made later this week.

The Cabinet Minister said last night that during the last two weeks, his officers had been going through the plans to make sure that everything was in order before announcing the decision.

He said checks were being carried out to ensure the bill of quantities was satisfied, and to ensure the favoured bidder had met all of the criteria.

Mr. Scott said: "I don't know there has been a delay. There was a period of time that all of the general contractors agreed to, and then we asked for a two-week extension.

"We did not need any more extensions because we had made our decision. The delay of the last two weeks has been taken up looking at the detail and making sure that everything is as it should be before we announce it.'' Mr. Dunkley said claims by Government that the contract would be awarded to the company where most Bermudians would be employed was "nonsensical''. He said there was more than enough construction work on the Island for everybody to work.

He added: "I want to ask the Minister to show me where the unemployed construction workers are. If there are people unemployed in the industry then why are we allowing work permits for people to come in from overseas? "All that will happen here is that the contractors of Berkeley will take Bermudian workers from other companies because they have promised to have Bermudians working for them.

"But there are only so many people in the industry, so other companies will have to go overseas for staff, and then they will be criticised for doing so.

"And how does Government, at this stage, know exactly how many Bermudians will be employed on the site? All Government can do is take the word of the employer, and that is not acceptable.'' He said one of the things that troubled him most was the fact that Government had said it was more important to ensure that Bermudians were working on the site, instead of whether it saved $5 million.

But he said in time, if this policy is repeated, the $5 millions will begin to add up.

And he said the reason the tendering process has a pre-qualification stage is to make sure that companies are able and equipped to do the job.

Once companies have made it through that stage, then all that is left to be decided is price, he said. Mr. Dunkley added: "Surely, once Government has got through the pre-qualified stage, they have to give the job to the lowest bidder.

"All the companies have qualified and they are equal -- the deciding factor should be the money. The Government should make sure the favoured bidder has the qualifications, experience and staff to do the job. If they don't have the staff already, how can Government be sure they will get workers in time to do the job?'' Also coming in for criticism was Mr. Scott and Government backbencher and leader of the Bermuda Industrial Union Derrick Burgess after they told protesting BermudaTech workers on Friday that they would be better served if they were unionised.

Mr. Dunkley said Mr. Burgess should not have been wearing two hats at once when talking about Berkeley, and said whether or not workers were unionised had nothing to do with who should get the contract.

And he added: "The people of Bermuda think this is an important project and they have the right to know what is going on. When will somebody tell us?'' Mr. Scott said he did not believe some companies on the Island would be robbed of Bermudian staff in order for Berkeley to be built because he hoped to attract new people into the industry.

He said: "We want to attract people back into construction who have left and gone into another industry. We also want to attract people who have gone overseas to work in construction to come back to Bermuda.

"And then we want to entice people who have never worked in the industry, but who feel it could offer something for them.

"Some construction workers move from site to site, depending on where the work is, but much of the work is going to be done by sub-contractors and sub sub-contractors, so they will have staff working for them anyway.

"They may be a handful of folks that leave one company and go to Berkeley, but not many.

"XL Capital is just about winding down on its new site, and I don't know know how long Ace has got to go, so the timing of this may be just short of exquisite.'' When asked why people would return from overseas to work on this project, Mr. Scott said he could not say.

He added: "Challenge, perhaps, I don't know. I think we are stimulating the construction industry. We are coming up with innovations that will prove to be productive.''